Madam Speaker, I am pleased to rise during this opposition day to debate the motion tabled by the hon. member for Calgary Centre which reads: "That this House implore the government to initiate immediate consultations with Canadian taxpayers-"
I do not know if the hon. member remembers, but before tabling his budget, the Minister of Finance consulted Canadian taxpayers across the country. Thanks to modern technology, those who did not participate in these consultations were able to follow this exercise on TV. Consequently, the first point mentioned in the motion does not accurately reflect the situation.
Also, since the motion talks about initiating consultations, I thought that, especially in the case of the Reform Party, details would have been provided as to the kind of consultations to hold, because such a process costs money. What about expected results? I have not heard anything concrete on this since the debate began this morning.
The motion then refers to consultations with "provincial governments on the creation of a fair and integrated reform of the entire tax system-" I believe the hon. member is alluding to tax harmonization and I agree with the Reform Party on that. I
think that the Minister of Finance has already had meetings with his provincial counterparts, and it goes without saying that there is work to do. I also believe that, in its efforts to determine how to replace the GST, the finance committee is reviewing this whole issue.
This government has taken concrete measures since it took office. The hon. member mentioned earlier that we grant subsidies to companies or institutions and that this was a bad investment. We did say during the election campaign, as well as in our red book, that subsidies to companies will be drastically reduced, and I believe we are doing that. So we are going in the right direction concerning this aspect of public finances.
In fact, we have taken several realistic measures to put some order in public finances. During the election campaign, we did not make unrealistic promises, as did the Conservatives and the Reformists who promised to totally eliminate the deficit in three or five years.
The federal administration also includes the vision of a society. This is why it is not as easy as the Reform Party would have you believe to make cuts to reduce the deficit.
We made a very logical and realistic proposal in our red book. We said that we were going to lower the deficit to 3 per cent of our gross national product, over a period of three years. And when he tabled the budget, the Minister of Finance showed how he was going to fulfill that promise.
This is what we managed to do in the six months since we took office. The results are starting to show.
Reform Party members are very critical of the infrastructure program, and this from a political party that believes in public consultation and local government. I have been a member of Parliament for ten years now, and every time I meet mayors of municipalities, members of municipal, provincial and regional councils and members of the Federation of Canadian municipalities, they always demand federal involvement in an infrastructure program, because that is our role as a government. The Reform Party has no vision. A government must have a vision of society. A modern society without a modern and adequate infrastructure cannot develop its economy, and our economy must be in good shape if we are going to reduce the deficit and the debt. And that is what we are doing.
We responded initially to a request from the municipalities and we put this request before the provinces, which agreed to share the cost three ways. We will not only create jobs needed in the short term to boost economic recovery but also respond to a real need for infrastructures in our regions, our communities, our towns and our villages. The infrastructure program will help communities and existing entrepreneurs to expand and help new entrepreneurs get started.
It is not just a matter of dollars and cents. We must have an all-encompassing vision, which the Reform Party does not have when it insists on talking about a tax revolt.
To my knowledge, there have always been protest movements, and these are sometimes necessary because they make us think. As members we often sit in this House five days a week and do not always have time to go and listen to our constituents. However, we don't think we can say there is a revolt. Of course some people are angry, and a few may have good reason to be, but I think that today we should be more constructive and try to get together and deal with these problems with the government, and I think we should stress the positive aspects so that we can suggest how the government should deal with these problems. We did.
Speaking of consultations, as part of our parliamentary reform at the beginning of this session, our first item was to ensure that members of the finance committee would be able to prepare the next budget with the Minister of Finance, something unheard of in the past. Until now, the contents of the budget were announced to members in this House at the same time as they were to Canadians watching on television, in other words, when the budget was brought down in Parliament.
Members of Parliament will be able to contribute. This system will enable us to submit proposals, make suggestions and express the people's concerns to the Minister of Finance. That is what we call real consultation!
The motion reads:
-implore the government to initiate immediate consultations with Canadian taxpayers-
That is what we have been doing since the opening of the session. In fact, that was one of the commitments we had taken during the election campaign.
We, members of Parliament, are here to represent the people of Canada. As such, we can let the Minister of Finance know what they think and the committee will be able to prepare a budget, together with the minister, and to tackle the problems facing the Canadian economy. This way, we will be prepared to face the problems of the 21st century, have a sound financial position and be able to compete in the modern economy.
On September 4, ten years ago, I was elected federal member of Parliament and I have spent at least six of the past ten years examining problems the small and medium-sized businesses are grappling with. In the budget speech, I was pleased and proud to notice that the Minister of Finance had tried to settle once and for all the question of small business deductions. Small business need tax deductions, but the Income Tax Act allowed large
corporations to take advantage of the system, up to $200,000 worth in income. The Minister of Finance corrected the situation and he will certainly address small business.
In the budget also, large corporations like financial institutions were told that they would have to pay their fair share. Of course, complaints were received from the Restaurant Association because deductions for entertainment expenses were reduced from 80 to 50 per cent. The Minister of Finance's budget actually established equity, as requested in the motion before us, but this means everybody has to do his share. I must admit that the federal government was dragging behind in that respect. Measures to that effect had long been in place in Quebec, as well as in Ontario and in the United States. I am sure that restaurant owners will realize that their businesses will not suffer from these measures; the fact that people can only deduct 50 per cent of their expenses will not stop them from going to the restaurant.
It is therefore very important to pursue our efforts in that area. That is in fact the first thing we will do after receiving the finance committee's report on the GST. Consumption tax is a major element of our tax system. We are going to provide the Canadian people with a fair and equitable tax system. We will start by finding an equitable alternative to the GST and I hope that this time, the provinces will accept to harmonize their programs with ours and that we can have a tax system that every- one can understand.
Madam Speaker, you and I come from Quebec. Today, someone who goes to a service station or a garage to get their car fixed would have trouble understanding their bill. As an accountant myself, I have difficulty understanding my bill.
Because there is a 4 per cent tax, a 7 per cent tax, a 9 or 8 per cent tax, and every tax kicks in after a certain amount. So the small entrepreneur who should be in his garage working as a mechanical specialist and serving his customers is busy with all this paperwork, and God knows what will happen in two or three years, when the auditor from the revenue department drops by his garage. Did he figure out the taxes properly?
Imagine how our small and medium-sized businesses feel who have to live with this GST system. I think this year we should make the effort to design a consumption tax system. Because with our financial situation, we cannot tell Canadians that we will abolish the GST and that there will be no consumption taxes.
The Right Hon. Prime Minister, whether in opposition or in government, has always been very clear: we will replace the GST. However, once we have dealt with this important part of the tax system, namely consumption taxes, we will move on to the other part of the system, income and capital taxes. What system should we have? I think with the structure, reforms and regulations established in this House by our parliamentary committees, especially the finance committee, we will be able at this time next year, with the next budget, to really put our fiscal house in order and give hope to Canadians that we can have a fair, equitable and efficient tax system.
But it is only by working together and supporting the Minister of Finance-and I am confident that our finance minister will see it through to the end. Before becoming involved in politics, he was a businessman; he knows the problems, he listens to Canadians-and I am sure that together we will succeed.
I know that the hon. member for Gatineau-La Lièvre would like to participate in this debate so, Madam Speaker, with the consent of the House, I will sit down and allow him to speak his mind.
